Wednesday, 28 August 2013

New generation of fakes?

Fujifilm is getting into the art forging trade. The company has
partnered up with the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam to create
three-dimensional replicas of the artist’s most famous pieces. It’s
accomplished through a process called Reliefography, which Fujifilm says
is the result of seven years worth of research and development.

What it
has come up with is stunning; by combining a 3D scan of a given work
with a high quality print, Fujifilm is able to create replicas (or
“Relievos”) that are nearly indistinguishable when placed against an
original. Lending even more realism to the end product, the frame and
back of each art relic are also reproduced with extraordinary detail.
Only the most discerning eye would be able to spot a difference.

All of that effort and precision takes time. According to Gizmodo,
Fujifilm can only output three Relievos per day. But the company
believes that’s enough to recognize the Van Gogh museum’s mission of
bringing these storied pieces to “as large an audience as possible.”
Even so, adding a Relievo to your living room wall isn’t cheap.

They’re
priced at $34,000, so only serious art collectors are likely to be in
the market. But it’s better than the millions a Van Gogh original would
fetch. The impressive reproduction technology will be exclusive to Van
Gogh museum for three years, but other galleries are (understandably)
said to be lining up for discussions once that deal ends.

Article by Rodrigo Canete
For direct access to the original article, click HERE

Off we go!

Book Choice No.45

This early drawing by Ingres is based on an engraving by Rene Boyvin (c.1525-c.1589)

Ingres, like many other artists, developed his drawing skills by copying earlier artists.

From the number of erotic drawings in Guegan's book, Ingres was clearly also drawn to the subject matter!

Below are two similar drawings by Ingres and the original engravings by Giulio Bonasone (c.1510 - after 1576) that inspired them

Ingres

Bonasone

Whatever the nature of these drawings, the skills developed are clearly evident in Ingres' masterworks that followed, not least his celebrated Venus Anadyomene (c.1808) - a detail from which is shown below

Ingres' Venus

Like his early drawings, the later paintings by Ingres are erotically charged - not least the famous Turkish Bath (1859-63), a detail of which is shown below

Ingres - Turkish Bath (detail)

I have long been struck by the similarity in drawing style between Picasso and Ingres

According to John Richardson (Picasso's biographer) Picasso first encountered this painter at the great Ingres Retrospective in Paris in 1905

The earliest influence of Ingres is evident - according to Richardson - in Picasso's Woman with a fan (1905)

Picasso

The inspiration for this exquisite little drawing is an oil painting by Ingres dated 1819

The best way to see the direct influence of Ingres on Picasso is to compare two self-portraits.

The first is by Picasso, dated 1917-19

And here is the "inspiration" - a self-portrait by Ingres dated nearly one hundred years earlier!